CHAP. xii. HOSPITABLE RECEPTION AT BEFORANA. 315 



presented me with a bunch of native bananas, remarkably 

 fine fruit. Each banana was nearly eighteen inches long, and 

 curled like a bullock's horn. The only cooking-place was the 

 house in which I sat. The fuel was wet, and the grass roof 

 not admitting the escape of the smoke, the atmosj^here proved 

 exceedingly painful to my eyes. I tried to stand out of doors 

 when it did not rain, but there was only a yard or two that 

 was not some inches deep in water and clay, worked up into 

 stiff mud by the passing to and fro of the people and the 

 cattle. The inhabitants of the villages do not seem to have 

 advanced in civilisation so far as drainage ; and from the 

 state of the villages themselves, as well as the swampy wet 

 grounds around, they seemed as unhealthy places as it was 

 possible to imagine. 



After a couple of hours' rest, and many expressions of kind- 

 ness from the people, we resumed our journey. Great part 

 of the way was through a thick forest, over steep and slippery 

 paths and through narrow passes, along which it seemed im- 

 possible to cany a palanquin ; while the heavy rain which fell 

 during great part of the time, rendered our progress still more 

 difficult. During this afternoon's journey we crossed four 

 rivers swollen with the rain ; and about five o'clock reached 

 Beforana, a tolerably large village, situated in a swampy 

 hollow, surrounded by woody hills. My quarters were not 

 uncomfortable, but I felt shivery and cold. The chiefs 

 brought in the customary present, and shortly afterwards the 

 owner of the house came, accompanied by his wife and chil- 

 dren, bringing a small basket of very white rice, with a duck 

 and a fowl, as a present. He said Messrs. Johns, and others, 

 had always stopped at his house when travelling to and from 

 the capital; that he was glad to see me there, and had 

 brought the small present as a token of his good will. I 

 thanked the kind family for their present, and expressed my 

 deep sense of the hospitality manifested in every place. After 



